Last Friday, Nintendo shared many updates for Fire Emblem Engage, such as the announcement of the Expansion Pass and a Japanese trailer for the Somniel base.

Because there was so much information and I was working from Friday to Sunday, this analysis comes later than usual.

Also, like the previous mega-analysis, I’ll be splitting it into multiple parts. This first part will cover the Expansion Pass contents.

Big thanks to TipperTheScales for helping with the analysis!

Intro

I didn’t think it would actually happen, but I had my suspicions with the way the official Fire Emblem Twitter was blazing through the social media content, only to potentially run out of content on Friday.

At The Game Awards, an Expansion Pass was announced for FE Engage.

Since FE Awakening, every FE game has featured an expansion pass or DLC (RIP Three Hopes), so an Expansion Pass was inevitable.

The announcement trailer opens with a few shots of characters fighting alongside revealed Emblems.

First, we see Alear & Marth fighting a Corrupted lance wielder. This occurs on the snowfield map seen in Diamant’s spotlight, etc. Right screen is from the spotlight.

Of note, near the top-right corner, there’s Jade as a green unit. Also, there’s a Talk bubble when the player selects Alear. So it’s possible you can recruit Jade by speaking with Alear. We know that you can recruit characters by talking to them, similar to FE games before Three Houses.

The allies on the map include Alfred and Amber (both lance cavalry).

Next shot is Fogado Engaged with Corrin using the Engage Attack, Torrential Roar to unleash Dragon Fang. Previously, he was labelled as “Fogato” via the official subtitles for the “The Divine Dragon Awakens!” trailer. That seems to be have been a mistake.

For what it’s worth, his Japanese name is spelled like Fogato. However, even the Japanese website has his name as Fogado, so it was probably always meant to be Fogado. (Strangely, Timerra now appears to be the only character who retains her Japanese name, Misutira, on the website.)

If you missed it, we know from Corrin’s overview that Torrential Roar damages three foes in a line and applies a water-based Avoid-30 tile underneath them.

After Fogado uses Torrential Roar, we briefly see the map, which is the ship one near the beginning of the “Engaging with Emblems” trailer. Right screen is from that trailer.

The next shots feature Timerra & Ike in the desert, Ivy & Lyn performing acrobatics on the ship map, Diamant Engaged with Roy performing an Engage attack and finally Rosado Engaged with Eirika performing an Engage attack as well.

We’ll cover Roy in depth later on. Also, the last shot confirms a theory that fans had, where Eirika can swap with Ephraim. Earlier, during Sigurd’s overview, an icon that looked suspiciously like Ephraim’s was spotted, where Eirika should’ve been.

After this, we’re shown a glimpse of the Wave 1 Expansion Pass contents.

At this point, I’ll combine the info with the Japanese overview trailer for Wave 1 of the Expansion Pass, since it covers the same stuff, but in more detail.

Edelgard, Dimitri & Claude

Following in their Professor’s footsteps, Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude–the three house leaders from Three Houses–will join as a singular Emblem in Wave 1! They function kind of similar to Eirika and Ephraim.

Here’s the three performing the iconic boxart pose.

Here’s what they look like in battle, when equipped by Alear. Left: Edelgard, Middle: Claude and Right: Dimitri.

The battle occurs at a Firene castle, seen in Framme’s spotlight etc. The enemies are Firenese soldiers. The first enemy is a knife-wielding Wolf Knight (same class as Merrin).

How it works is that at the start of each turn, Friendly Rivarly will trigger, causing one of the house leaders to be selected from random. In the example shown, it goes from Dimitri to Claude. I’m guessing it always swaps to someone different, so you can’t go from Edelgard to Edelgard.

Alear is a Level 18 Dragon Child with a Silver Sword, plus various swords, an Elixir and the house leaders’ Aymr. It seems that the weapon doesn’t change with the house leader.

The allies on the map include: Lapis (sword cavalry), Goldmary (sword), Pandreo (tome/staff), Alear (sword, synced with Dimitri/Claude), I think Jade (axe, synced with Lyn, with 3 clones around her), Kagetsu (sword) and Framme (body arts/dual staff).

Unsurprisingly, Alear can support multiple characters. There’s also a shield icon on the enemy body arts user. Possibly related to Chain Guard?

Here are some shots showing Alear Engaging with the house leaders. Left is from the announcement trailer and right is from the Japanese overview.

Three Houses Chain Strike (very tentative name) is an Engage attack that deals three hits of damage, with an axe, lance and bow respectively. Each hit can inflict Break if there’s a weapon triangle advantage. Here, a Break occurs during the lance part of the attack, since the Firenese soldier is wielding a sword. Seems useful for sword wielders to cover the standard weapon triangle.

Lineage is a Sync skill that grants 120% experience points, similar to the individual lineage skills in Three Houses.

Now, Alear is a Level 20 Divine Dragon, wielding Aymr while Engaged. On the map, Alfred is nearby, synced with Eirika. Slightly further away are Goldmary (sword), Hortensia (tome/staff flier) and another lance cavalry, maybe Amber. Of note, all the wyvern foes have a green dragon icon, suggesting Aymr is effective against dragons. We know Blutgang is effective against dragons.

In battle, Alear is wielding Dimitri’s Areadbhar versus a Firense cavalry unit. Presumably this is an additional Engage weapon that can be unlocked–and Failnaught would complete the trinity, since all Emblems thus far have 3 Engage weapons. Also, since Alear is Engaged with Edelgard here, it doesn’t matter which house leader is active; you can probably use any of the three weapons.

Above is Alear equipping Edelgard’s bracelet. DLC Emblems will be summoned from bracelets, not rings, to differentiate them.

Alear is a Level 17 Dragon Child with bonuses in Strength, Dexterity and Defence. They’re equipped with a Silver Sword, Silver Blade, a new sword called Vie Le Granz (I suspect it might be French, but I have zero idea), Iron Blade+1 and an Elixir.

I’ve noticed their unique sword Libération isn’t equipped; does it upgrade to Vie Le Granz? The aesthetics resemble Brionac, a lance wielded by Louis in Lyn’s overview.

Alear’s skills are Divinely Inspiring, Divine Dragon Energy, Avoid +15 and Dexterity +3. I believe the latter two are inherited skills (Avoid +15 is from Marth).

Meanwhile, Divine Dragon Energy is in the class skill slot, but I’m unsure how it’s unlocked. Since Alear is still a Dragon Child here and doesn’t usually have this skill in that class.

Just a guess, but maybe it’s unlocked via Alear’s Divine Dragon class and applies retroactively? I’m pretty sure Alear has reclassed down to Dragon Child for this screenshot, since the player seemingly has access to all 12 non-DLC Emblems.

Actually, I have a feeling class skills are unlocked at certain Levels. In Marth’s overview, Alear only has 3 skill slots (no class skill) as a Level 3 Divine Dragon. However, they do have 4 skills (and the Divine Dragon Energy skill) when they’re a Level 8 Divine Dragon in “Engaging with Emblems”. Perhaps the class skill is learned when you reach Level 5 in a promoted class?

Edelgard’s weapon is Aymr, her Sync skills are Friendly Rivalry and Gambit: Raging Flames, her Engage skill is Combat Arts and her Engage attack is Three Houses Chain Strike.

Update: I forgot to check earlier, but the North American eShop page for the Expansion Pass features an English version of Alear and Edelgard’s screen. Of note, Edelgard’s Engage attack is “Houses Unite”. Sadly, Alear’s inventory is different, so we don’t have an official translation for that new sword.

By the way, there’s a gap between Byleth and Tiki that’s a bit odd. Is it merely a gap to divide the non-DLC and DLC Emblems or are they hiding something? Like a 13th Emblem…?

Upon closer inspection, I’m convinced they edited something out.

One, the space is exactly enough to fit in an extra Emblem. Here, I’ve duplicated Lucina, Corrin and Byleth over Byleth, the gap and Tiki. You can see that it’s a perfect fit. Besides, if they wanted a divider, they could’ve used a proper graphic rather than a weird awkward space.

Two, if you stare really hard or up the brightness/contrast or just use Photoshop’s magic wand, you’ll discover the gap is more or less a solid block of colour. In contrast to the natural gradient seen in the rest of the background.

Three, the dots in the selector allude to there being 13 Emblems. Each dot should be a category. I believe the categories are one for the actual Emblem Rings/Bracelets, then one each for the Bond Rings for each Emblem (Bond Rings will be covered in the Somniel analysis, but they’re accessories that augment an Emblem’s stats).

For example, when Alear was equipping Marth in the debut trailer, there are 3 dots. One for the Emblem Rings themselves, then one for Marth’s Bond Rings and another for Sigurd’s Bond Rings.

Next, when Citrinne was equipping Emblems in the “Engaging with Emblems” trailer, there are 5 dots. Now you might be thinking, there are 6 Emblem Rings visible, so shouldn’t there be 7 dots? However, I’m guessing the player doesn’t have Bond Rings for each Emblem, hence there’s less dots than expected.

Moving back to the Edelgard screen, there are 14 dots, so if the theory holds, that means there should be Bond Rings for 13 Emblems. This is assuming DLC Emblems don’t have Bond Rings. That said, I guess there’s no reason they can’t.

Assuming there is a 13th Emblem, who could it be? Could it a combination of the other 12 Emblems? Or an original Emblem that originates from Elyos? Perhaps it’s an actual evil Emblem? Similar to the holy blood chart in Genealogy, where the 13th holy blood belonged to the dark god, Loptous.

Tiki

Tiki from Mystery of the Emblem etc. joins as another DLC Emblem in Wave 1!

Here’s Alear meeting with Tiki. The backdrop could be the Ice Dragon’s Shrine where Tiki was sleeping in Mystery of the Emblem.

Tiki: You’re a Divine Dragon? Just like Tiki!

Tiki: Wow! I can’t wait to talk to everyone! Come on, let’s hurry!

Earlier, I was amused that Alear had a very similar background to Tiki. Both are Divine Dragons and children of the Divine Dragon King (Lumera in Alear’s case and Naga in Tiki’s case), who slept for 1000 years. So I thought it’d be cool if they could meet up–I didn’t think it would happen this soon though!

In the announcement trailer, there’s a shot of Alear Engaged with the house leaders fighting at the Ice Dragon’s Shrine.

Here’s Jade fighting alongside Tiki. Jade has a Steel Poleax+3 and she’s fighting a Ruffian with a Silver Knife. The backdrop is the Elusian church seen in the story trailer. The “heavy” weapons like Blades, Greatlances and Poleaxes go last when initiating combat, but trigger Smash, which shoves a foe back one space.

When Engaged, the user fights in Tiki’s dragon form! One of Tiki’s Engage weapons is Ice Breath, which Tiki uses in Book 1 of Mystery of the Emblem. Here, Jade is taking out another Silver Knife bearing Ruffian.

Eternal Claw is another Engage weapon, where Tiki seems to attack at close range. The critical hit ratio seems quite high here. Her foe is a Silver Corrupted with a Silver Axe. We’ve seen Golden Corrupted before. In the backdrop is a strange device that seems shaped like Elusia’s insignia. Well, not surprising if they’re fighting in their church.

Divine Dragon’s Blessing is an Engage attack that grants a resurrection stone to an ally. It appears as a blue gem underneath their HP, similar to the red gems underneath certain enemies. Presumably it grants an additional HP bar, thus preventing them from dying when their first HP bar reaches zero.

The recipient here is Goldmary wielding a Silver Blade. The map is the Elusian church, with fog of war active.

Starsphere’s Protection is a Sync skill that makes stats more likely to increase during a Level Up. It likely enhances growth rates like the Starsphere in the original Mystery of the Emblem. I have a feeling min-maxers will want to equip/inherit this skill ASAP.

The map is once again the Elusian church, but the fog of war has been lifted. Perhaps the weird apparatus from earlier is what triggered it? For the record, the Elusian church map also appeared in Corrin’s overview, with and without fog of war.

Jade is a Level 17 Axe Armor here, with her Steel Poleax+3 again. Her full inventory was shown earlier, although I’ll cover it in a moment.

On the map, the allies include Alear (sword, synced with empty Emblem), Alfred (lance cavalry, synced with Eirika), Goldmary (sword), Amber (other lance cavalry), Framme (body arts/dual staff), Pandreo (tome/staff), Kagetsu (sword), Lapis (sword cavalry), Hortensia (tome/staff flier), I think Citrinne (tome/staff) and Jade (axe, synced with Tiki).

When Jade Levels Up, she gains HP, Strength, Magic, Dexterity, Speed and Defence.

Here’s Jade equipping Tiki’s bracelet.

Jade receives a boost to HP, Defence and Luck. Her inventory includes a Steel Poleax+3, Tomahawk, Steel Poleax and Iron Poleax+1. Her skills are Meditation (personal), Swap (class), Hit rate +15 and Lance Prowess: Heavy Lv. 1 (both inherited skills).

Tiki’s weapons are Eternal Claw, Smash Tail and Ice Breath. Interestingly, she has all 3 at Bond Level 1. Her Bond Level 1 skills are Starsphere’s Protection, Dragon Transform and Divine Dragon’s Blessing. There’s an Armored class bonus for Dragon Transformation. Presumably that’s why Jade was picked.

Smash Tail, I’m guessing triggers Smash like the heavy weapons. Meanwile, Dragon Transformation is probably what allows Tiki to transform into a dragon when Engaged.

Similar to Alear equipping Edelgard, I think Jade has reclassed down from a promoted class for this screenshot. It’s extremely unlikely that Jade has 49 HP soley from being in a non-promoted class.

By the way, while Engaged with Jade, Tiki’s dragon form is blue. However, in the announcement trailer, Tiki can also be yellow (similar to her Divine Dragon appearance). Also, when she’s Engaged with Framme, she’s red, kind of like a Fire Dragon.

Perhaps Tiki’s colour depends on the unit’s class type? For example, Armor makes her blue, while Qi Adept makes her red. I’m guessing Dragon (like Alear’s Dragon Child) makes her yellow. Not sure if there’s enough colours for the remaining 5 class types though!

World Map

Rewinding back to the start, the Japanese trailer opens with “The Curtains Rise on the Divine Dragon’s Chapter.”

As we know, Lumera and Alear are Divine Dragons, a race worshipped by the people of Elyos (well, except Elusia for obvious reasons). So it could be referring to them. However, the DLC introduces Tiki, who’s also a Divine Dragon (from Archanea). Or maybe it’s a bit of both.

The eShop description for the Expansion Pass sheds more light on things. “Divine Dragon’s Chapter” seems to refer to a new(?) set of paralogue maps, known as “Divine Paralogues” in the English version. In one of these paralogues, you’ll be able to obtain Tiki.

Next, we see the player moving on the world map. Currently, they’re traveling by sea to an island off the coast of Firene, I believe.

The world map was previously glimpsed in Veyle’s background on the official site. If you compare the green, south-western landmass, the shape matches exactly.

The castle surrounded by water should be the royal castle. The circle next to it is likely the battle that occurs at the castle, seen in Clanne’s spotlight etc. The circle further north, with the ruins, could be where the night-time battle seen in Céline’s spotlight etc. occurs. East from the castle are (I think) two circles close to one another–these could be the first and second Firenese maps we’ve seen.

I’m guessing circles indicate locations where story battles occured. There are also diamonds, which is perhaps where paralogues take place? The player is moving towards a red circle, which is a bit peculiar, because the only path is through a diamond. Since it’s an overview for the Expansion Pass, it would make sense if the red circle is a DLC map.

Looking at the diamonds, the one above the southern island has tents like the one in the Sacaen throwback map. Also, the one north-west from the royal castle looks like a bit like the Gebal Castle throwback map (pic from Path of Radiance). East from the royal castle is another diamond with two bridges, perhaps the Thracian throwback map?

Hmm, are all the throwback maps paralogues? Not all paralogues may be throwback maps though. There’s one paralogue at the end of Corrin’s analysis, which doesn’t resemble any existing map, although it’s named after an existing paralogue. I’m wondering if it’s the red diamond north-west from the southern island, which I don’t recognise.

Similar to Awakening, enemies may appear in locations you’ve already cleared. They can appear where there’s circles or diamonds.

The red circle the player’s traveling to could be the location where you recruit the house leaders. Vander mentions discovering a mysterious bracelet found at an island south of Firene. If you recall, the circle is on an island south from Firene. So maybe they obtained the bracelet at the end of the paralogue? Alear remarks that he can sense the presence of Emblems from it.

Hey presto, the three house leaders jump out from the ring, surprising Alear. Edelgard then promises to lend her group’s assistance.

According to the eShop description, the house leaders are recruited via an event at Lookout Ridge at the Somniel base. Presumably that’s where the dialogue screenshots from above are. Is it required to clear the paralogue at the southern island to trigger this event? Or does it occur regardless?

Accessories & Other

Supplementing the new Emblems, Wave 1 also includes new accessories and helpful items.

The Rare Set (Foreign Style Clothes in the Japanese version) gives characters an exotic maid/butler style outfit. The characters wearing them are Goldmary, Jade, Timerra, Panette, Alfred, Diamant, Pandreo and Louis.

Additional accessories include Big Ribbon, Frilled Band, Round Specs and Single Earring, worn by Rosado, Framme, Alcryst and Vander respectively.

These can be picked up from the Boutique at the Somniel from Chapter 6 onwards. Presumably this is when the Boutique unlocks.

In addition, there will be an adventure support pack containing a set of stat-boosters: Seraph Robe, Energy Drop, Spirit Dust, Secret Book, Speedwings, Goddess Icon, Dracoshield, Talisman and Boots. Ooh, Boots.

These are available from the Somniel base from Chapter 5 onwards.

Presumably that’s when the Somniel becomes accessible. I think that’s around the end of the first Firenese arc. Prologue and Chapters 1 and 2 should be at Lythos. Then Chapters 3, 4 and 5 should be in Firene. This is a very rough estimate though.

Finally, you can obtain a Silver Card, which grants a 30% discount from the armoury and vendor. This can be obtained from the same Divine Paralogue where Tiki is recruited. In the background, you can see a bit of the Ice Dragon’s Shrine map.

Expansion Pass Roadmap

To finish off, the Japanese overview shared a roadmap for the whole Expansion Pass.

I covered this earlier, but here’s the info again:

Wave 2

• New Emblem(s)
• New support items and accessories

Wave 3

• New Emblem(s)

Wave 4

• New story (with new characters, maps and story separate from the main game)
• New classes

Waves 2 to 4 only have “2023” as the release date.

In the Japanese eShop description, the support items in Wave 2 are described as “consumable items” and “crafting materials” (for Bond Rings, I believe). Hopefully they’re worth the extra wait…

A new story isn’t unexpected, since we had Cindered Shadows for Three Houses. The expansion pass featuring Gradlon’s insignia makes me curious if it’ll explore the Fell Dragon’s sunken realm in more detail….

That’s all for today.